As a native Wisconsinite (aka cheesehead), I must take umbrage at these commercials. The ones declaiming California cheese as "THE cheese."
I mean, come on. Why would cows be happier broiling the day away under triple-digit skies, eating baked grass and breathing valley smog, than in the cool, verdant, most uncitified moraines of Wisconsin? Where people proudly wear plastic hats shaped like wedges of cheese? I ask you, would they get that kind of loyalty here? I don't think so.
California, you have your wine, your produce, Disneyland, and plastic boobs. Leave the cheese to the experts.
9/30/2002 10:44:33 PM
wallpaper by me
San Francisco pier and skyline - I liked the angles. Get it here (1024x768).
9/29/2002 11:02:29 AM
congrats John and Jenn!
Riley Michael was born on Monday!
9/28/2002 10:47:58 AM
what's red and furry and adored by fans everywhere?
Me! as my new alter ego.
9/27/2002 06:27:47 AM
"I told this one guy how much I loved the smell of the ice"
Been a long time since I've been to a good old hockey game... Sigh.
9/26/2002 04:25:17 PM
fall, and a girl's fancy turns to yarn
After seeing this cover, I want to knit something with hugemongous needles! Perhaps an afghan...
9/26/2002 06:27:50 AM
gold in them thar hills
A few snaps of a recent trip to Sutter's Fort.
9/25/2002 07:39:47 PM
overheard and true
"If you're in this line of work [education], and you're a sensitive person, it will drain the life right out of you."
9/25/2002 04:44:07 PM
just like the bad old days
Manual journaling. Mayhap it's meant to make me grateful for the advent of blogging tools [as she inserts line breaks using actual tags].
So I drove down to the new apartments to drop off our application and deposit yesterday after work, the odometer logging a mere three miles. I parked on the side of the property opposite the leasing office so that I could walk around a bit and enjoy the trees and lakes and fountains (to remind myself that, yes, the work will be worth it in the end). As I was leaving, I passed a metal gate. Well, most of me passed it. A 4-inch steel latch arm was attached to one of the gateposts, and, as usual, I was busy not paying attention to my path, and it reached out and socked me in the shoulder. I haven't felt pain that sharp in quite some time - like little shooting stars erupting from my deltoid.
I'm now the proud owner of a lumpy, darkening bruise. Maybe I'll show you if it gets really ugly.
9/24/2002 06:42:44 PM
it certainly rocks my world
Librarianship after Google [via Librariana].
9/21/2002 12:11:09 PM
I must be missing the point
Um. Extreme Ironing...?
9/21/2002 12:06:01 PM
bloggerversary
On Monday, this blog will be two years old. I kept a hand-updated "journal" for a few months before beginning this one, but I'm not counting that. I never thought of it as a "blog."
It's been an eventful two years, to be sure:
- been through my first 6.5 trimesters in a public school (for better or worse)
- adapted (more or less) to life in California
- made my first trip by plane
- made my first trip by plane, solo
- learned to knit (mostly)
- got engaged
- got married
Not to mention pages upon pages of ordinary, everyday stuff.
Thanks for reading :-)
9/20/2002 04:13:04 PM
of nothing in particular
I shouldn't be depressed, but I am, a little, for a variety of reasons. The new library may not be done until well after the holidays, now. My new [post economic crash?] contract didn't include any sick leave, but I've used some anyhow (which doesn't matter in the slightest, aside from lack of pay; they've taken away my space for three days, and I literally wouldn't have anything to do but blog, which as you know could get me fired, so back to nothing, maybe an hour straightening my catalog collection, whoopee). The house payments turned out to be far, far (stratospherically) too dear, so we're back to Plan Rent; surprisingly that one doesn't bother me as much as you'd think, hardly at all. I'm ridiculously old for this outlandishly introversive crap; and the saddest thing is - I've actually improved in the past few years. Today I've clogged the disposal with no idea how to go about fixing it (having tried unplugging and poking with a stick, Drano, and streams of profanity), and melted part of the stupid polyester blend comforter in our firing kiln of a dryer. My sister isn't coming to visit in March, after all, and my mom is angry with me for not including her in my offer, often trying to upset me when she calls. And my basket of flowers is already dead, which, when paired with a tidal wave of hormones, was enough to put me over the edge and into tears, and I'm sitting here with my box of Kleenex feeling cranky and stupid.
9/18/2002 04:53:53 PM
some memes strike closer to the heart
The Coffee Cup Project. Add your own precious vessel of life.
9/18/2002 09:52:12 AM
rob makes us proud to be sacramentans
"There are lots of crafty things people do to save money. Some are good ideas, some are lousy ideas, and some are downright criminal."
It's Sneakycheap.
9/18/2002 06:20:50 AM
why I should pick up D's Wired mags more often
"Photobooth presents over 700 such photographs from the last 75 years, images at turns spontaneous and uninhibited, often goofy, and occasionally touching. It is a fascinating portrait of everyday people and a testament to the ongoing fascination with both the process and the result."
9/17/2002 09:22:25 AM
lights, camera, action
Fourteen days 'til Season Eight opens. There's still time to join the Little League and develop your cast - and plenty of room!
9/16/2002 03:18:09 PM
back
Over the weekend we:
- got lost in the maze of one-way streets of SF (not unexpected)
- had a nice dinner
- heard some great stories
- put [real] faces to a bunch of names
- went on The Cab Ride From Hell with a thoroughly insane driver (no, it really was straight from the movies, complete with screeching tires and cutting off and honking and hanging on for dear life)
- turned 31 (well, really, I did that myself. Some of us around here are still 30)
- stayed the night in a movie-themed theatre hotel, where we were serenaded at [I'm guessing] four am with a nicely-performed rendition of "Proud Mary" from the street below
- found that our letterbox was unattainable because of the San Francisco Grand Prix bike race, but at least saw a bit of the city on our walk down Market to the Ferry Building, and were practically within spitting distance of Robin Williams, some kind of emcee for the event
- had a little lunch at a Fifties-type cafe (the name of which escapes me)
It's been so long since I've been in a big city, I'd forgotten how interesting and energizing it can be, the movement and the art and architecture. It took some restraint not to stop at every corner and gawk.
A small handful of city pics here.
9/15/2002 06:38:50 PM
not even my birthday
I got flowers at work today! And a Michael's gift card! And a pop-up book! Aaaannnnndddd confetti cake with my name on it and polka dot candles!
This weekend I'm off to San Francisco to stay, Fray, kick it up another year (another emergent wrinkle there, a new gray there, and rapidly aging ova... Ummm. Woot...?), and do a little bit of treasure hunting.
Enjoy yours, too.
9/13/2002 08:02:50 PM
meh
I bought myself some new friends today. Red Wag Platies and Black-and-White Mollies at Petsmart. I gave up eating lunch to rush and get them, so I hope they're grateful and don't die on me. The two breeds are peaceful and hardy, sometimes even prolific. They're already getting on swimmingly (ha!) with the Sunset Platies and Danios.
It's so lonely here today; my sixth grade classes were cancelled. Next year they may hire a textbook clerk for me part-time, so I'll have some adult companionship. By then it may be too late, my conversational skills worn down to a babbling nub.
And all the fish ever talk about is baseball.
I'll probably be fired for blogging right now, what with the new Orwellian serverspies in place. That's why I haven't been visiting everyone quite as much as I'd like during my circulation desk time. My every URL is being recorded for posterity and courts of law. Oooh, I could be fired on the spot for blasphemy just on this paragraph alone.
Yesterday was exhausting. What with me being a thousand times more pompous than I really am in a spastic pre-coffee fit, and then ending up watching, anyhow, and getting physically ill seeing the (previously unseen) footage of the firefighers in the lobby hearing the bodies crashing down. Could at least have had the tiny solace of the statewide moment of silence, but at school... Well.
I'm reading "A Separate Peace" now (and about time). Knowles is hypnotic.
Now that I'm rid of the Yearbook advisorship (whew), I can take on something a bit more literary. I have this vague little idea floating around, month-long book circles finished off with some kind of related artsy-theatrical production (both sorely lacking here) by each group. Or maybe a Scrabble club, which would potentially be easier (especially since I now have boards, thanks to all my sponsors from the beginning of this year, whom I haven't forgotten in the least).
There. Now if I'm fired for blogging, at least it won't have been for only a humorous link or single random observation.
9/12/2002 03:22:44 PM
vigil
"We Americans can be a rowdy bunch and our protests traditionally include flag waving, marching, chanting and large, colorful signs. It's interesting, then, that the stark, silent Women in Black approach turns heads."
9/12/2002 06:33:08 AM
remember, reflect... and act
It occurred to me, on this early Wednesday morning, in front of sites beribboned and bannered and blackened, that I've been reflecting for an entire year. I certainly won't need today's glut of media hype as catalyst.
What I've failed to do is anything constructive. All the discourse in the world won't really change anything, won't stem the cruel misery and ignorance at the crux.
So in memoriam, I'm putting my money where my mind is. It's not much, and it's far too easy. But it's only a start.
9/11/2002 05:36:45 AM
am I the only one?
Earrings and infants do not belong together. Punching a rod through those tiny, delicate little ears, risking infection and tearing, for the sake of what? A mother's grossly misplaced vanity?
Pisses me off, it does.
9/10/2002 05:40:38 PM
looking for tre-zhah
Our first letterbox! It was the Folsom Powerhouse box, in the rocky woods next to the Rainbow Bridge/American River.
Notes for next time: no, estimating the angle isn't a near substitute for a compass. Wear hiking boots, even if you think you remember that particular terrain as tame. And if a tree that is unfamiliar to you is an integral part of the directions, you'd best learn what it looks like before leaving the house.
We stopped at the Michael's in Folsom afterwards, and bought a carving tool and a sheet of stamp rubber. I hacked out our stamp while watching "Trading Spaces." Not too bad for a first attempt. Or second, if you count my last curse-laden wrangling with an X-Acto blade.
9/8/2002 12:39:47 AM
leaning
Find out where you stand with the Political Compass.
Apparently I'm a left-wing libertarian:
Economic Left/Right: -2.12
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -4.46
Via dennison_bertram
9/6/2002 06:17:02 PM
nunsuch
Oh, I want to be a Renaissance nun!
I've ordered a bodice from Heather, and I can't wait to get it. She's so talented - and a super nice person. Check out her wonderful creations! I just love looking at them.
9/6/2002 03:50:00 PM
But all adoration aside, I don't believe they're ready for middle school yet. The comparatively giant eighth graders frighten them, they still need recess (believe me), and they're not yet strong enough to be toting sixty pound backpacks across campus (lockers are now considered a safety hazard, did you know that?). When I think about my sixth grade year spent safely ensconced in a lovely elementary, with its holiday gift exchange, winter camping trip at the Dells, and pet guinea pig (Crackers), I can't help but think they're missing out.
And they're still not too old for story time.
9/4/2002 06:00:14 AM
the adult thing to do
Two recent grown-up things:
1) Purchase of new flatware. Nothin' too fancy, just solid and clean-lined and shiny. I've been carting the old "hollow" $10 Kmart stuff around since, what - 1993? It helped that I found that set for just over half the Amazon price, too. Darin is still at a loss, as the old set was completely serviceable. Flowery and scrolly and ugly as sin, but serviceable. I guess it's a girl thing.
2) Submittal of the home loan paperwork (and since it begins with paper and ends with work, and I'm allergic to both, that would never have happened if Darin hadn't spent a whole day putting it all together). I'm trying not to look at houses with a prospective eye. Whoops. Too late.
Sheesh. You'd think we were 30, or something.
9/2/2002 09:43:09 PM
